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Happy Wednesday everyone. The week is almost halfway over. Huzzah! And for that, I’m giving you the gift of book reviews. I haven’t posted any since January, so I’ve got a good chunk of literature to talk about.

I am Number Four (Lorien Legacies #1), Pittacus LoreGoodreads stars: four

This was a super fun read. I had some issues with it though: first, it was written by a collaboration that includes James Frey. I hate James Frey (in a literary capacity, of course). Secondly, there were quite a few noticeable inconsistencies that makes me wonder how well it was proofread. But, this book was exciting. It’s a great teen adventure read and I think it was adapted into a movie, which I haven’t seen. One of the major pieces of this book is a romance between the main character, John (or Number Four), and a girl he meets at school, Sarah Hart. The language and interactions between them are too contrived. Having already read the second book, I can see how Sarah is an integral part of the story, but I think it could have been written better. Having said all this, if you go into this knowing it’s just going to be a fun read, you’ll be fine. I wouldn’t use it to write your grad thesis or anything (unless you were writing your thesis on authors that like to sell “memoirs” that are 95% untrue and are really not that great at writing).

The Titan’s Curse and The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3 and #4), Rick RiordanGoodreads stars: five and four, respectively

I’ve posted about these books here before. I love them. They are part of one of the most fun adventure series I’ve ever come across. Riordan’s humor is what really makes it, because there are multitudes of teen adventure books out there, but his wit really sets him apart. I think these books are great for any age. The Titan’s Curse is probably my favorite out of the first four, but they are all super exciting and hilarious and I can’t wait to finish the series!

The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam Trilogy #2), Margaret AtwoodGoodreads stars: four

This is the second in a trilogy by Atwood, that began with Oryx and Crake, one of my all-time favorite dystopian novels. I discovered Atwood in undergrad and have mostly been a fan. The Handmaid’s Tale is a classic but The Tent left me wondering what the hell I just read. The Year of the Flood was a great sequel and I enjoyed learning about the parallel stories that match up with the plot lines in its predecessor. What I love most about Atwood is that she takes problems that we have today, say, medical corporations exploiting the sick, and she exacerbates the issues that they create, and bases a dystopian afterworld on it. She is very creative, and I’m already itching to read the third, even though it has yet to be written.

This is How You Lose Her, Junot DiazGoodreads stars: four

This book was chosen for the book club that I’m apart of, The Reading Rainbow Society (I know, we’re super cool, right?). The lot of us had some trouble reconciling who was who and who was telling what story and when, but for the most part we were able to come to a concession on what was going on. Diaz sets up this novel as a set of stories about immigrants, mostly based around love and relationships, between lovers, friends and family. There’s a good amount of Spanish slang in it, so if you don’t understand Spanish, you might miss some of the biting cuts, but you will still understand the book overall. Some parts are rather graphic but it was a great read. I would definitely read another book by Diaz.

Ready Player One, Ernest ClineGoodreads stars: five

I’m going to go ahead and say it… this is my favorite book so far this year. The Goodreads summary starts as such: “Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.” Sounds super cool, right? It’s like the SIMS but there are entire universes you can explore. But when the creator of OASIS dies, he leaves Easter Eggs behind in the simulation for one lucky boy or girl to win his entire legacy. Wade is the one that plans to win it. Throughout the novel, Wade has to find ways to discover these eggs. The creator was an avid fan of the 1980s and Wade must wade (pun definitely intended) through hours upon hours of movies, music videos and other research from the 80s to get leverage against other players. I had so much fun reading this book, even though I’m not a big video game player. I highly recommend it!

Only three? Yeah, only three. I love Harkness’ writing style. She knows how to bring history to life. But this novel was just so long-winded. It took me awhile to get through it because I found myself not caring whether or not I picked it back up. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the story, because I did. It just felt like there were a lot of unnecessary detours. I still plan to read the third, whenever she writes it.

A Game of Thrones (Song of Fire and Ice #1), George R. R. MartinGoodreads stars: five

I’ve heard all the hype. I’ve heard this series is amazing. And it is. It absolutely is. It starts out a little confusing, considering how many characters there are, and how many POVs Martin uses to tell the story. I printed out a character map that I actually kept notes on. But it is such a great story. Martin gets your hopes up, dashes them, and then breaks your heart; he stomps on your heart until you don’t think you can go on… and then you do, because you need to know how it continues. I can’t wait to continue reading the series, even though I know I’m going to keep getting my heart broken.

The Power of Six (Lorien Legacies #2), Pittacus LoreGoodreads stars: four

Basically everything I said about the first book. This one was a little more action-packed though, and had less inconsistencies. I’m glad that there was less interaction with Sarah, but John’s sometimes near-constant droning on about her gets annoying. Learning more about the other Garde was interesting though. I’ve requested the third book in the trilogy from the library, and I expect that once I get it, I’ll finish it in a couple days like I did with the others, and then move on with my life, never looking back.

2 Responses to “February and March Book Reviews”

I’m impressed that you read so much. Maybe if I spent less time reading blogs I’d have more time to read good literature. I also really love that you are in a book club called The Reading Rainbow Society. So dang cool.

I think if I didn’t read so much I would turn to mush from boredom. I think I also got used to reading so much in grad shcool, so it’s kind of just … what I do? haha and the book club is a bunch of people around my age (25-30s) so we obviously all grew up watching the reading rainbow and thought it was fitting :)